 Hi guys, it's Alex. I thought I would give you guys a juicy video because I've been so MIA and this is a video I've been wanting to make for a while now. So I hope you guys grab a snack and drink and get ready to learn about how I and a bunch of other girls got basically scammed at New York Fashion Week in February. I know New York Fashion Week just ended or I have no idea it's still going on right now. So I thought it was the perfect time to make this video. Okay, so the story all starts out with an Instagram DM from a very nice girl named Kimberly. Now I'm saying her name because she had no idea that this was happening either. Like basically everyone working for this guy and his company had no idea this was going on. So we were all kind of like blindly led by this guy and the team was also kind of being blindly led by this guy. I have a lot of respect for her for putting up with this and having New York Fashion Week be like so crazy and she had to like deal with this. Anyway, it started out with this DM. I will put a screenshot of the message but it says, hey girl, I am the marketing and PR assistant for company based in blank and blank. My team and I noticed your beautiful style and we love to speak with you about an opportunity for you to be a blogger at New York Fashion Week this February. I thought I was like in a dream or something. Sorry for the lighting. I use natural lighting. We have a few spots left for bloggers to add to our clientele. Our goal as a firm is to handle all the work and allow you to focus on the styles and events of New York Fashion Week. Please email me at blank if this is something you'd be interested in. So obviously like I was in shock. I was like, oh my gosh this is crazy. My parents were like, oh this seems kind of fishy. I don't know. Check out the website. This could be a scam and I'm going to tell you something. All of the girls that were there, we were all kind of talking and we all thought this was a scam. The minute we got messages or emails or anything like that, we should have listened to our intuition but we didn't. So we all ended up at New York Fashion Week for this adventure. So our reply and I say Kimberly, thank you so much. I am very interested in learning more about this opportunity. I will send you an email with all of my contact information this evening. I thank you again, Alex. I sent her an email saying, hi Kimberly. I'm very excited about this opportunity and would love to learn more about it. I would enjoy being a blogger at New York Fashion Week in February. I am not like a clothes expert at all. I don't really shop a lot for clothes because I don't really want to spend the money on them. I really really want to change up my style but didn't know how I got picked for New York Fashion Week to be honest. So don't ask me in the comments. I don't know. This would be my primary email to reach me and my phone number is blank. So this is basically the time when we exchange emails. She wants to set up a phone call with me and the director of the firm of the company. Both of them like hyped it up so much and Sherry even said that they talked like millennials on the phone especially like the guy who is the director. I'm not going to put this one up because it's like a lot of text and it's kind of boring. She said thank you for getting back to me. She's obsessed with my style on Instagram which is good because I don't really have like a lot of outfits. I like shooting like the same outfits like every time. I'd like to formally invite you to be a part of the blogger lineup for our New York Fashion Week production this February. So this is like the official invitation and they had designers that they were working with that wanted us to like kind of promote them. It was just seems so legit. This is a key point and I'm going to read this because it was just really fishy. We are giving a $480 discount for bloggers who register by Friday November 14th. Also we can do payment plans where only a $500 deposit is required now and then the rest and smaller increments before February. So basically they were wanting to get me signed up and get my money. They were giving me this $480 discount and of course we wanted the discount right. So we only wanted to pay $720 and the blogger package. Let me read you what the blogger package contained. This included hotel okay. So our hotel was paid for hotel accommodation breakfast lunch registration for panel VIP access to New York Fashion Week show backstage pass hair and makeup car service to take you to different events which I thought was like a private driver and on the phone call with these people. They're like yeah you're gonna have like a private driver as like oh my gosh this is legit and um a little did I know. And then a swag bag and photos complimentary of the company air not included. So basically I had to pay for airfare which was fine. Then there was going to be a panel and okay here's the here's the key one. Hotel combinations will be at the Hilton located in New York Fashion District for four or three nights. Will be covered by the company. Each blogger will be attending a New York Fashion Week show and have the ability to cover the event. Get your taste buds ready for fusion of foods. So basically we were going to get cooked great food and breakfast and I think two meals were like supposed to be given to us I have no idea. Backstage access to like events um and like this showroom. So that was a blogger package okay. I know this video is long I'm sorry. Basically I just want to make sure the discount was going to be applied to me and they were like yes and then she sent me again with the blogger registration things that I just read to you in an email so there was even more proof that we're supposed to get all of this stuff. And then basically I just sent a screenshot of my payment to the company. That was the first or deal with like getting registered and everything like that. So then we didn't hear anything for a while and my parents and I were like okay well if this is a total scam we're just gonna be out like $500 which is a lot I totally understand but this just seemed like a really good opportunity. So we're like might as well take a risk. We didn't hear anything for a long long time but then this lady at Candace sent me an email and it was pretty much just the same thing that Kimberly did. Candace was the in-house accountant for the company and it was just like really weird because she sent me like the same email with like the blogger package what it included then she sent me this invoice. It was just kind of crazy because we had just talked about a $480 discount. I replied back to this email saying hey Candace from my understanding when I spoke with Kimberly and the guy I would get the $480 discount please send me a revised invoice because this is crazy like we made such a big deal that we were going to get a discount and it needed to be changed. She didn't respond like hello lady this is dealing with money you kind of need to respond. Turns out she like quit or whatever so it was just like really weird. I got like one more email from her saying that she corrected it and basically we were waiting for a revised invoice before we were going to put any more money into this. I kept getting emails like about updates and blah blah blah but I'm like my invoice hasn't been changed yet I'm not doing anything until that invoice has changed. So I felt so bad because I kept messaging Kimberly saying like hey have you talked to Candace like hey we need to get this changed. We had to fill out this form about like travel information which airport we were flying into do we need a king size bed or two queen size or two full kind of just like about the hotel. We also did get a package from them which was kind of cool it was like a blogger package with like I don't know just some random shit in it which was kind of cool because I felt like you know I was one of those bloggers that got PR packages so it was kind of cool. Then I emailed all of these questions to Kimberly and she answers them and everything and she says that she will like speak to Candace. Also was bringing Spencer so I was asking her about guest accommodations. I also wanted to go to my cousin's show so those are like things that I was asking Kimberly about. Finally Candace recends an email and she says hi Alex please see revised attached invoice because I sent Kimberly something and then copied Candace and I was like hi Kimberly I just wanted to follow up with you on the corrected invoice. I am able to pay once I have it I would like to book my flight soon. We still had not booked flights because my invoice hadn't been changed. The email that I got from Candace was on December 15th of 2018. The first email from Candace was 111818 and it took her a month to get my invoice corrected. That is crazy and it was just getting really really weird and stuff. They kept sending like blogger information in the package. They kept saying that they were going to send individual schedules. We never got an individual schedule until we got to the hotel. We got these little folders with like pieces of paper with our schedule on it but that changed so they needed to like give us another one. It was just so weird guys. They told us the designers that were going to be there. They paired me up with a swimsuit designer and apparently they never came because I was like well where's my designer that I'm going to like be working with or something. Not there. They changed the designer I was going to work with right at the last minute to the swimsuit person. I was originally supposed to work with another person that was like into more fall attire but they changed that right at the last minute. We didn't end up working or having a photo shoot with like any of the designers. We had like this one poor photographer guy was there and he was taking pictures so I got like three or four pictures but he didn't even get paid by the company and apparently he was supposed to so we did get photos but he was kind of the photographer guy was even kind of scammed but we did not have like a session with the designer like you would think of. So because of the weather they were making more changes and guys this is like getting closer and closer to the event. Also they were sending us to other shows in New York City which was awesome. I did get to attend one like legit show so that was a very very cool experience and I'm very grateful for that but they were adding additional events so that was a plus for me. Some people did not even get to go to a single show until we like complained and everything and surrounded the owner and was like this is nothing what we expected and we would like our money back. He then got the people that didn't get to go to shows into shows so that was a plus but we had to like stand our ground with that. So there was this event that was supposed to be called industry night. They would be hosting presentations at the hotel from different people. It was supposed to be like with drinks and probably like some hors d'oeuvres from like the fancy chef that was supposed to be there. Yeah that did not happen whatsoever. It was supposed to be like probably a banquet type or deal with like presentations and stuff. Never really happened. The chef that was like cooking on the food was related to the guy that was like in charge of all this and ran the PR firm. It was just like kind of crazy like I don't know how they got away with this. I also remember I got an email for an additional show but the show had already been like over. The girl sent it to me like way after the event and I'm like hey this is like and she was like oh that's the wrong event. So bottom line it was very unorganized and everything. I made a whole like kind of blog post style on Instagram so if you haven't seen that I will link the Instagram post down below. I'm going to read my post so it's kind of like a video slash story time. I don't remember all of the details since it has been quite a while since this took place. So I'm just going to read this and if I remember anything I will add it in this video. Basically I want to say some positive stuff so in this post I include before I say anything negative. Let me just say I had an amazing time. It was my boyfriend's first time in New York City. I met such amazing people and experienced a ton of things. I truly felt like an adult. So we got there around 10 a.m. and explored. It was check-in time and then we went to meet and greet and that's when I met some amazing bloggers. The second day was okay but kind of unorganized. We had a panel and listened to a bunch of people in a lot of different industries. The girls and I started noticing things were not going the way we thought they were and were promised. The company we went with said we would have private drivers go to tons of shows and work with a designer. Yeah they like built this up like we were going to be so busy. We were not that busy and we just wanted to explore New York so I guess it worked out in the end but we didn't get anything that they like said we would. They kept bugging us for our measurements and nothing was done with them when we got there. The third day was kind of a mess but for me I got to attend a show that was super legit. In the midst of all this all the girls and I were clueless about what was going to happen next and at what time. We were constantly asking so what is this like when do we go? We had no idea like what was going on half the time. Apparently the scheduling person messed up or something. The one good thing was the show I got to attend. The fourth night was the worst. All the girls and I confronted the director about these complaints and he said he would take care of everything. We're still waiting for him to take care of everything. I don't think everything was going to be taken care of. I had to like file complaints with my bank and everything. The only thing I got back was from my bank. My $720 and I did get the $500 back. I didn't get reimbursed or anything for the hotel because the hotel everyone got charged. So the night we confronted the director was industry night which was probably the most lame thing ever. I haven't been to many parties to compare to but just watch the video. If you want to see the video I will put it on the screen right now. It was a very short little clip. Still to this day the director hasn't done much. The girls and I had to contact our banks to get refunds. For the grand finale the company was supposed to pay for our hotel like I mentioned previously. The hotel accommodation was part of the blogger package we all paid for. All of the bloggers paid something different. The company's credit card was declined and all of us got charged with $800 plus hotel bills. Hilton wasn't super helpful to be honest but they were somewhat sympathetic. Still to this day I'm waiting for Chase to help me get this huge charge off my credit card and that my friend was my New York fashion week story. PS the director did not pay his employees. The employees weren't paid and at the end of this like the director guy he like took off man. He was gone. He knew he was in trouble and messed up and just left the scene and then an additional comment I added to this. I have been refunded the amount I paid the company from contacting my bank and PayPal which is really good. Just waiting to get the dispute I filed with Chase from the Hilton hotel bill. Okay two more things I wanted to quickly add. During the show that the PR company was putting on we were all supposed to get our hair and makeup done. Some of us only got makeup done. Some of us only got hair done. Some of us only got our eyes done like myself but I also got my hair done. Another thing I wanted to add was the food. All of the models ate all the food so during this like conference day there is nothing left except for like avocado toast and like a little fruit parfait thing. It was so not well done and they weren't organized enough to like say hey we need more food so like go out and make more or whatever. So they probably like didn't budget for that or anything. So we were like starving one of the days. We met up with my aunt and cousin. We were like we need food because like we hadn't eaten like all day so yeah. Also industry night we were supposed to get complimentary drinks afterwards from a bar that never happened because industry night sucked. That was kind of my summary of New York Fashion Week. I know by the vlogs it didn't really seem like this was all happening. I tried to keep them really positive because I was in a great city. I just wanted to tell my story here and it's been a while and I just want to warn you guys be very very very careful and if he even looks legit talk to someone who's worked with them before. You never know if this guy's gonna strike again and I just realized that his Instagram page for the company and stuff is back up and running. So I'm like hoping he doesn't do this to any other people out there. Also I just wanted to add the private driver. It wasn't for us individually. It was a van so he could take all the girls to like the showroom which is like a crammed up space half of a little New York store. If you guys have any other questions for me about this experience leave them in the comments down below. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I know it was a long one. Make sure to give this video a thumbs up. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys in my next video. Bye guys!